1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and image processing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, with an increased number of pixels of digital cameras and downsizing of portable digital music players, demands for storage media using large-capacity, high-speed NAND flash memory have been increasing. Also, multifunctional products (MFPs) in recent years have come to have higher performance, and the size of firmware for controlling devices has been steadily increasing. Thus, today, as a storage medium incorporated in an MFP, a large-capacity inexpensive NAND flash memory is being used in place of a small-capacity expensive NOR flash memory. Conventionally, in some cases, software, such as firmware, cannot fully fit in an NOR flash memory, and therefore technologies have been proposed such that optional software for use in an MFP is stored in a portable storage medium, such as a Secure Digital (SD) card, and is read from the storage medium for execution (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-202935, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-174200, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-174199, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-148934, and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-287840).
Even in such an MFP, by storing the optional software in a NAND flash memory, a reduction in cost associated with production of the portable storage medium that stores the optional software and an increase in data transfer rate are expected. On the other hand, because the optional software may be illegally copied into a NAND flash memory, a mechanism that prevents unauthorized use of the optional software is required.
Furthermore, in general, manufacturers provide a lineup of products for one series of MFP, thereby offering devices suitable for functions and prices desired by users. In some cases, a product in the lineup is produced by adding hardware as a physical option, such as a hard disk device (HDD) or a network card, to a conventional MFP. For such a product, component management for production is relatively easy. However, when different products with different types of firmware are produced, different controller boards in each of which a relevant firmware is installed have to be fabricated for the respective products. Therefore, when the number of products is increased due to different types of firmware installed, the number of seemingly identical components is increased at the time of production, thereby possibly causing erroneous mounting of a controller board.